William Pollard Jr | aka: Wild 4 Washington Wine

Two of my favorite memories are ice cream related.  "Ice cream" What do those words mean to you? Childhood memories are my first connections and mental images. Running after the ice cream truck. Begging mom for coins. And the delirious satisfaction at the first sweet, creamy smell and taste as it drips down your hand. Sigh.  Making chocolate ice cream As an adult, when my wife brought home an ice cream machine a few years ago, I had zero interest. “Great.” I thought. “More calories I don’t need.” So, I ignored it for a couple of years. Then the pandemic hit. And you know, time and opportunity, and boredom. On impulse one day I pulled the ice cream machine out of the pantry and started experimenting.  My first batches of ice cream were icy. Not exactly what I was attempting to make. So, more experiments. While edible, and fun to play with, my results were not satisfying. One day while I was looking for another ice cream recipe online, I saw in a comment the solution to my ...

Last month I left one of my favorite jobs in the Washington wine industry. After 35 months working at Col Solare Winery on the Red Mountain AVA, I have decided to take a break from wine sales and wine education. It was my choice. I remain a huge fan of Col Solare and their talented winemaker and cellar crew. Miss them too.  Twenty years ago I began working in the Washington wine industry. My first wine job was in 2005 working for Barnard Griffin Winery in Richland, Washington. What an amazing time. I learned I loved selling wine and telling stories about wine. This is when I began taking wine far more seriously, and learned more about winemaking, grape varieties, and customer interactions. Also, during this phase I was inspired to create this blog. I was discovering my writing "voice" and the beginning of my teaching voice. Thank you Rob, Deborah, Micky, Miah, Meagan, Kim, and all those I worked with. Thank you.  Writing about wine, from a wine sales and production winery v...